Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-07-07


For the first time he was disap-
pointed. But in the three or four
seconds he stood there making a noise
on the gravel with his cane, he noticed
how strangely still the afternoon was
against the blitheness of the morning.
Then he went into the house with a
sudden eagerness.
Boobies was tied in a high chair at
the window, his head hanging over on
his arm. His eyes were red. He had
evidently cried himself to sleep. The
table stood empty in the middle of the
room. He had pictured the dinner
waiting and the copper tea urn singing
and steaming. The voiceless place
maddened him.
Lofty he cried. encouragingly,
and then lmperatively, stamping his
foot.
Lofty put her head thu ough the
kitchen door, looking little scared.
where's Mrs. Binninger?''
'Shure, and thin she's not come YETI
well, where's the telegram? Why
don't you give me the dispatch?"
..Indade, there's nary dispatch At
ALL"
He WAS losing his temper. He cursed
the country telegraph service.
-'Get the dinner on the table. She'll
be starved to death when she gets here.
I'll go down and get the dispatch
Nothing here, SIR" said the girl at
the telegraph office. I'D sent it up if
there had BEEN"
H1sl x,-a;k Co. xbo tro;D
Numbered along in few minutes. He
told Charley Purdy to wait with a
hack. She'd be too tired to walk up
the hill. He saw the crowd get of. His
wife was not among them. His rest
lessness was growing Mt frightful
pace. She must be on the next train.
The harder he tried to think him
self into a reasonable condition of
calmness the more resistless became
his fears, and his helplessness made
him furious. The one sharp thought
that kept singing in his mind was: If
she had been detained she would have
telegraphed. Her first thought would
have been of me and my anxiety"
Then he began to realize that he did
not know exactly where she had gone
in the city. He telegaphed to two or
three friends. The answers were cruel
Have not see her to-day" Train
after train came along. 1t seemed to
him that every mans darling was COM
ing home except his. 1t was seven
o'clock before he knew it. The sun
had gone down behind Piermont and
the river was bloody with color. His
growing impulse was to take down
train and fly after her. His reason
held up the city, with its million
people, and reminded him heartlessly
of the needle in n haystack.
He tried to laugh at his fears; called
himself fool. But no sooner had he
done so than up rose with terrible dis
tinctness the great, sweltering city,
with its myriad dangers, its colliding
life and death and the possibility of his
darling having fallen into some snare
or met with some accident He in
vented thousand absurd reasons to &C
they only added TO his misery by their
ingenious shallOwnesS
At nine o'clock a new and terrible
idea was springing up in his mind in
spite of every effort to keep it down. 1t
was this: .'She will never come back. -
He heard Boobies crying as he APP
preached the cottage. He thought
there was a strange, desolate pathos in
it he had never heard before. He felt
a cold sense of something down in his
soul, rs if a relentless iron was working
its way into his consciousness.
He walked the floor with his teeth set
as though to keep the phantoms of his
! imagination back.
And 80 the long night passed with nc
waking at intervals and calling fol-
Ma"
As soon as it was light Lofty went
over and brought Mrs. Chamberlain, a
neighbor. She looked at Binninge1
with concern. His whole face had
changed.
She tried to cheer him with a wom-
ans finesse and duplicity.
"What boy you are" she said
'.Lou has been detained by somebody
and she has neglected to wire you be-
cause she expected to come back. You
are borrowing trouble. It's annoying,
but certainly not serious. I've done il
myself. You will go down and make
some inquiries. and I'll stay here till she
comes. and then telegraph YOU" This
is the slap on the back of the hearty
man when the bell of doom is tolling in
your soul.
The aerolite had fallen.
The next day passed hopelessly and
helplessly.